The island Crete, located near Greece, was a very important civilisation. Not just because it was the first one of Europe and excellent Sea trading, but because of 2 other things.
First, men used to Bull-Jump; they would hold the horns of a bull, swing themselves around, and be caught by someone on the other side. It was a dangerous sport; those who managed to not get killed were greatly respected (And those who were harmed by the Bull died.)
Secondly, there is a legend that there was a monster called the Minotaur; it used to eat 7 boys and 7 girls every year (They were from Athens, a city in Greece, because the king of Crete, King Minos, didn't want his on subjects to be fed to the monster.) A hero, Theseus (Who was the son of the King of Athens), decided to fight the monster. He travelled to Crete and got into the labyrinth holding the Minotaur (Which had a thousand twists and turns.) Luckily, King Minos' daughter, Ariadne, gave Theseus a ball of string. When he reached the center of the Labyrinth, he attempted to kill the Minotaur with his sword. He succeeded and followed the string outside. He got onto his ship and travelled back to Athens. Do you believe this story?
Also, Crete was a Thalassocracy, which means that it was a sea civilisation.
Crete's colonies and its power
Here is a story on how Crete fell.
There once was a mountain, called Thera, under the ocean. For thousands of years, it kept showing small eruptions.
One day, some Cretan sailors landed on the coast of an island. "This looks good," they said. So they enjoyed it.
But the island was actually the mountain. It poked out of the earth, and looked like an island!
One day, a slightly bigger eruption happened. Some members left. But others decided to say. "It's too difficult to move," they said.
Soon after, there was a huge eruption. Absolutely ginor - mammothic. It destroyed Thera itself, like it was a piece of dust, and nearly wiped out the entire population of Crete. Some people survived. But when the Mycenaeans come from Greece, the Cretans couldn't defend. Minoa was finally lost.